A memorable public meeting in November 1844 at the Queen Hotel in High Harrogate discussed future railway proposals at enormous length. In the end it was resolved that “for the future prosperity of High and Low Harrogate it is expedient that no railway should in any circumstances be brought within the immediate precincts of either place”. The precise wording said it all.
Harrogate as it is known today did not then exist. There were two distinct settlements that for more than two centuries had developed to serve a spa and visitors ‘taking the cure’ by sampling the celebrated waters. High Harrogate on its breezy plateau had most of the fashionable shops and hotels including the Queen. Low Harrogate, a mile to the west in the Coppice Beck valley, was centred on the Old Sulphur Well – better known as the ‘Stinking Well’. Along with other medicinal springs, it was prized for its purgative qualities and fostered numerous baths and public rooms.
Almost a mile apart, the two settlements were separated by an area that was utterly sacrosanct. The Forest of Knaresborough Enclosure Award of 1778 had set aside 200 acres as a green space to protect the waters and provide open walks for visitors. The subsequent development of Harrogate owed everything to what became known as the Stray. Resembling a vast village green, it has been zealously guarded against numerous threats through to the present day.
Even though High and Low Harrogate had a combined population of over 3,000 and more than treble this number of annual visitors, they were in 1844 still free of railways. They retained a spirit of exclusiveness with the wealthy often arriving in their own ‘chaises’ and others using stage coaches. A hint of change came on opening of the Leeds & Selby Railway as Yorkshire’s first main line in 1834. A remarkable journey from London of uncertain duration began by taking a ship to Hull and a packet boat to Selby, from where a train was joined as far as Micklefield to reach High Harrogate on a connecting coach.
Only six years later, travel from the capital to sample the waters took only a day. Opening of the North Midland Railway in 1840 completed a chain of main lines between London and Leeds, where coaches could be joined for the final part of the journey. In the same year George Hudson opened his connecting York & North Midland Railway from Normanton. From 1841 the Great North of England Railway extended rail travel from York to Darlington and an embryo East Coast Main Line under the command of the ‘Railway King' was fast taking shape. It came nowhere near the spa, which was still untroubled by a rapidly changing world, but it was soon clear that this state of affairs could not last.
The ‘Railway Mania’ loomed nearer and by late 1844 the York & North Midland Railway was promoting a line from a junction at Church Fenton through Tadcaster and Wetherby to Low Harrogate. A glowing prospectus had earlier forecast in relation to the spa that travelling time from London would be greatly reduced and “thousands would be induced to visit this place, who usually go to Brighton, Ramsgate and other places”.
It would
